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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have teamed up with artificial intelligence pioneers and Nobel laureates to advocate for a total prohibition on creating artificial superintelligence.

The royal couple are part of the group of a influential declaration that demands “a prohibition on the creation of artificial superintelligence”. Artificial superintelligence (ASI) refers to artificial intelligence that could exceed human intelligence in every intellectual area, though such systems remain theoretical.

Primary Requirements in the Statement

The statement states that the prohibition should remain in place until there is “broad scientific consensus” on developing ASI “safely and controllably” and once “substantial public support” has been secured.

Notable individuals who added their signatures include AI pioneer and Nobel laureate a leading AI researcher, along with his colleague and pioneer of modern AI, Yoshua Bengio; Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; British business magnate Virgin founder; former US national security adviser; ex-head of state an international leader, and UK writer a public intellectual. Additional Nobel winners who endorsed include a peace advocate, a physics Nobelist, an astrophysicist, and an economics expert.

Organizational Background

The declaration, aimed at governments, technology companies and lawmakers, was organized by the Future of Life Institute (FLI), a US-based AI safety group that earlier demanded a hiatus in developing powerful AI systems in 2023, shortly after the launch of conversational AI made artificial intelligence a global political talking point.

Industry Perspectives

In July, Mark Zuckerberg, the leader of the social media giant, one of the major AI developers in the US, stated that development of superintelligence was “now in sight”. Nevertheless, some analysts have suggested that discussions about superintelligence indicates competitive positioning among tech companies spending hundreds of billions on artificial intelligence recently, rather than the industry being close to achieving any technical breakthroughs.

Possible Dangers

Nonetheless, the organization warns that the prospect of ASI being developed “in the coming decade” presents numerous threats ranging from eliminating all human jobs to losses of civil liberties, leaving nations to national security risks and even endangering mankind with existential risk. Existential fears about AI focus on the possible capability of a AI system to escape human oversight and protective measures and initiate events contrary to human interests.

Citizen Sentiment

The institute released a US national poll showing that approximately three-quarters of Americans want strong oversight on advanced AI, with six out of 10 thinking that artificial superintelligence should not be created until it is demonstrated to be secure or manageable. The survey of American respondents added that only a small fraction backed the current situation of rapid, uncontrolled advancement.

Corporate Goals

The top artificial intelligence firms in the US, including the ChatGPT developer a major AI lab and the search giant, have made the development of artificial general intelligence – the hypothetical condition where artificial intelligence equals human cognitive capability at most cognitive tasks – an explicit goal of their research. Although this is slightly less advanced than ASI, some experts also caution it could carry an extinction threat by, for instance, being able to improve itself toward reaching superintelligent levels, while also presenting an implicit threat for the modern labour market.